This invention relates to interactive television program guide systems, and more particularly, to program guide systems that allow television service providers such as cable operators to provide showcases for various types of program offerings.
Cable, satellite, and broadcast television systems provide viewers with a large number of television channels. Viewers have traditionally consulted printed television program schedules to determine the programs being broadcast at a particular time. More recently, interactive electronic television program guides have been developed that allow television program information to be displayed on a viewer""s television.
Interactive program guides are typically implemented on set-top boxes. Such program guides allow users to view television program listings in different display formats. For example, a user may instruct the program guide to display a grid of program listings organized in a channel-ordered or a time-ordered list. Users may also search and sort program listing by theme (e.g., movies, sports, etc.) or by title (i.e, alphabetically). A user may view additional information on a program by placing a highlight region on a desired program listing and pressing an xe2x80x9cinfoxe2x80x9d button. The user may purchase a pay program from the program guide by placing the highlight region on a program listing and pressing an xe2x80x9cOKxe2x80x9d button.
Although a user is often able to find information on a program of interest by searching for the program with the tools available in the program guide (e.g., by searching for listings in a particular category), this process requires that the user take an active role in locating the information. If a user desires a more passive experience, the user may not venture beyond the display screens in the program guide that present simple time-ordered lists of program information. As a result, the user may not be made aware of many of the cable system operator""s offerings.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an interactive television program guide that enhances the ability of a service provider to supply users with information on the programming available from the service provider.
This and other objects of the invention are accomplished in accordance with the principles of the present invention by providing an interactive television program guide that allows a service provider such as a cable system operator, satellite system operator, or broadcast system operator to customize the type of television listings that are made available to the user in the form of an operator showcase. The operator showcase may be accessed by the user through a menu of television display screen options each of which corresponds to a different operator showcase television listings screen. For example, a television display screen option might be xe2x80x9csports packagesxe2x80x9d and the corresponding television listings screen might therefore contain a set of television listings on various available packages of sports programming that are available for purchase. Because the television listings screens are easily accessible in a central location in the program guide menu structure, the operator showcase provides an attractive way for the service provider to promote programming.
The service provider may brand the operator showcase by selecting a title and logos for each operator showcase television listings screen. In addition, the set of television listings information that is displayed in a given television listings screen is determined based on content criteria that are preselected by the service provider. The program guide uses the content criteria to query a database of television listings data periodically provided to the set-top box from a program guide database in a main facility. The results of the database query (i.e., the set of television listings information that satisfy the content criteria) are displayed in the operator showcase television listings screen.
The service provider may also select the format for each operator showcase television listings screen. For example, the service provider may select the format of a time-ordered list, a channel-ordered, list, an alphabetically-ordered list, or a display format containing a promotional video barker, etc.
A user may select a given item from the set of television listings information. For example, the user may position a highlight region on top of a program listing using cursor buttons on a remote control. Pressing an xe2x80x9cinfoxe2x80x9d button on the remote control directs the program guide to display additional information on the selected item. Pressing an xe2x80x9corderxe2x80x9d button directs the program guide to provide the user with an opportunity to purchase the selected item.
Further features of the invention, its nature and various advantages will be more apparent from the accompanying drawings and the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments.